Your most memorable summer-run?

[Andrew]

I know, these are the sorts of topics that start showing up when guys are just sitting around waiting to go fishing, but, hey, that's what I'm doing,  so I thought I'd pose this question to a group of guys who has seen a lot of summer fish over the years: what is the single most memorable summer-run you've ever caught, and what made it so memorable? If you've got a good pic to go along, feel free to post it up, although this isn't intended to be so much of a glory shot generator as a discussion about what an incredible fish summer-run really are. I've heard some great first-hand accounts from a few of you, but I'm always glad to read more *honest* fishing tales. Regale away!

Personally, to this date, my most memorable summer fish is one I took from the Green one late June morning. I have hooked larger fish and fish that pulled harder than this one, but no other summer-run has ever come close to the adrenaline rush that this fish provided or the lasting impression it made.

Sturzman and I had been frothing the water since 5 am and, having touched only a large native rainbow, were getting a bit skeptical. Conditions were absolutely perfect, with a medium overcast overhead and summer flows just beginning to take hold after three weeks of heavy spring runoff, but none of the classic holding water had produced.

It was a little before noon that we came into some new water and began working up through a rather nondescript riffle. It had clearly not been fished recently, but it did not have a particularly fishy feeling about it anyway--just a piece of choppy 3-5 ft. moving water, and we were working it as such. Words cannot describe how I must have felt, then, when I lifted my rod to free my jig from what I presumed to be a rock in the fairly shallow water only to have a fish explode onto the surface and go into an incredible series of 2-4 ft. cartwheels. I had not and have since not seen a fish jump that high that many times, and all I could say to Matt while I watched it then was one word: "Dude!" 

Moreover, the fish ended up being a 13 lb. chromest of the chrome hatchery hen, and a precursor to the excellent summer season that followed. All of that notwithstanding, though, I think what made this fish so memorable is that it was the fish that ruined me for good. I could pass up the opportunity to go catch weak brats in a hatchery zone, and I could pass up the five bucks per week at the local tackle shop on gear I didn't have any real confidence in, but as soon as it became clear that tying my own jigs, hiking a river in a solitude, and picking through miles of water each trip was a surefire way to hook fish, I could no longer turn down any opportunity to go steelhead fishing. What other anglers were saying did not matter; I knew there were fish to be caught.

As much as I respect winter natives, I enjoy summer-run fishing more than any other kind. The days are long, the weather is warm, the wading is easy, and you never know what the next riffle will bring. I'm aching for June 1 and the 4 months that will follow with the rest of you.

Andrew

[apotestivo]

I'll be sure to tell you as soon as it happens  - This will be my first year fishing for summer run and I can't wait!!!
Thanks for you story and starting this thread - I'm sure I'll be drooling in no time.

Anthony

[Brian]

Sorry Andrew but I can't just label one fish as my most memorable summer run.

I LOVE SUMMER RUNS!

One that sticks in my mind came from the Elochoman River back in June of 1989. I had fished through a bunch of water without a bump when I arrived at a classic pool with a white water chute dumping in at the head. I cast my 1/2 oz. copper teardrop spoon into the whitewater at the head, and as it tumbled into the heart of the pool it just stopped. Not sure what I hung up on, I lifted the rod and in an instant a 12 pound chrome torpedo erupted straight up from the pool and cartwheeled above me at higher than eye level. Now I am 6' 1", and was standing in ankle deep water so this fish easily came 6' out of the water staright up. I was so stunned that I just stood there with my mouth agape while the fish ripped downstream and abruptly busted me off on a submerged branch. WOW!

MAN, DO I LOVE SUMMER RUNS!

Another one that comes to mind is the third fish I hooked on three casts out of a little side channel. I knew in an instant that this was no 6 pound hatchery fish! The fish peeled line upstream without even a thought of slowing down and proceeded to churn up through about a 50 yard run of white water. As I ran upstream trying to catch up before I got spooled, I fell at least twice on the slippery rocks , but somehow managed to keep the fish hooked.  Just when I thought I had this fish licked, he found the only branch in a 100 yard stretch of river. After what seemed like hours, I was finally able to slide this 15 pound thick shouldered summer run into the shallows. Very memorable!

I LOVE SUMMER STEELHEAD!

And lastly, after a full morning of swinging fly's for bull trout out on the OP, I was walking back up the road when I peered over the edge into a classic riffle and spotted a much larger fish along a rock wall. I studied this fish for several minutes before finally convincing myself it was a steelhead. Because of where this fish was holding, I knew there was no way I could reach it with my flyrod, so I hiked back up to my truck and returned with my spinning rod. I scrambled down the cliff to the only place I could get to the rivers edge below the fish and cast my black/ cerise jig as far upstream as could, hoping it was far enough to get in front of the fish. Any doubt was quickly erased as my float disappeared beneath the surface,... FISH ON! This was a very robust fish and after several screaming runs I slid the wild summer steelhead up onto the moss covered ledge I was standing on. I quickly unhooked the jig and admired this magnificant specimen for a brief moment before sliding her back into the gin clear water. The thing that has made this fish so memorable to me is where I caught it. This is the only summer run I have hooked in this river to date and I am convinced that it was a genetically pure wild summer steelhead destined to navigate the canyon pools upstream to reach its spawning grounds way up inside the Olympic National Park. A truly magificant fish!

If you look closely at the center of the photo, you will see the steelhead as I saw it holding in the river....


...and here it is after I hooked it!


Oh, AND DID I MENTION......I  LOVE SUMMER RUNS!

[cuttstosteelies]

I too, love summer fishing.... It's funny you asked because I was thinking of that just today and a fish I spotted that chased my spinner clear across the river (75 feet or so) and nabbed it near the surface as I was about to pull the spinner from the water.  It was midday and I had just been standing midriver and spotted two fish under a tree that I couldn't quite get position on.  Hence, I made my way to the other side of the river and began tossing my spinner behind a boulder about 75 feet from where the fish were spotted when I see this chrome little bullet coming at mock 3 and pounce on my spinner in only 6 inches of water... What a sight.... I quickly loosened my drag and this little bugger took me for an incredible ride.... Tough as nails and small to boot... I've found that smaller summer fish are sometimes the hardest fighting steelhead on the planet.... I'll never forget that day last July.....
She's the smaller one.....


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[Andrew]

Great stories guys, exactly what I was hoping for. Gotta get that positive energy flowing in preparation for the opener.

And Brian, about the second fish (sounds like an unforgettable one), I've generally found that if a fish that takes its first run straight upriver, you can pretty much deduce that you've just gotten yourself in some deep trouble... of course deep trouble is a good thing when battling steelhead. 

[Tee Jay]

I guess I’m sort of like Brian…there are a few.  Summer runs have been my passion for a long time now.  I remember hooking five summers in a row from a piece of canyon water that was maybe 20 feet long and 6 feet wide.  This was in the evening, after work and I probably only made a total of fifteen or twenty casts through that water in all.  These fish would come exploding out of the bubbles, twisting, turning, and cart wheeling through the air.  Somehow, it didn’t seem to disturb the hole…these fish were just too aggressive to pass up my offering.  I took home two mint bright fish that evening, released one and crackered two others.  I also remember taking an 8lb hen after a big summer rain on the Kalama.  Thank god that fish was only 8lbs.  Pound for pound, that is probably the meanest fish I’ve ever hooked.

Maybe my most memorable summer run is one that I wasn’t directly involved in.  At the time, I had only known winter fish, mostly out of the Snake.  We used heavy gear and threw hardware.  Then one summer my Uncle invited me to come join him for a camping/fishing trip on the north fork of theToutle.  This was late June 1975.  It’s hard to describe what that river looked like back then but I’ve never fished a river that gave me the same feelings as it did.  All I can say is, for a summer run stream, it was perfection and full of leaping 12 lb chrome torpedoes.

The first morning on the river, I was fishing a great looking piece of water and had worked it down with drift gear.  Another fisherman stepped in at the top of the hole and began sweeping a spinner.  All of a sudden I heard his drag singing and a chrome middle teens summer run came flying out of the water about five feet directly in front of me.  I was in my waders in knee-deep water, and I remember looking up at this fish that was well above my head.  I’d say that fish was at least 6 feet above the surface of the water.  At the same moment, it violently shook the spinner out of its jaw and the spinner actually skipped a couple of times across the water.  The fisherman upstream just stood there with a bewildered grin on his face.  It all happened in a matter of about three or four seconds and all he could do was shake his head and grin.  That’s when I knew I was hooked for good.  That started it all for me and even though it’s been 26 years ago tomorrow that the river I knew was gone forever, I’ve found other streams that are close seconds.  And, I don’t know about the rest of you, but the thought of an exploding, twisting chrome flashing summer run still causes me to suffer insomnia the night before a trip.

Oh, did I mention that I love summer runs?   

[Andrew]

Boy your NF Toutle stories make me jealous, Terry. Despicably jealous, even. 

Gives me incentive to move forward with work on the time machine in my apartment. North Fork Green River April 1935, here I come!   

[Tee Jay]

Andrew,

When you get that time machine finished (and thoroughly tested) make sure it's got two seats!

[Andrew]

You've given me an idea, Terry... Think of the guided trip rates I could charge. Maybe I should just convert an old school bus.     

Ok, enough... anybody else have a crazy summer-run tale? 

[Brian]

I just remembered another one, ..and Andrew this one was on your home river. I had fished the stretch around O'grady's and had hooked a couple of nice fish on a #3 black spinner. Darkness was setting in fast, and I decided the next piece of water around a logjam would be the last for the evening. I cast my spinner across the current and immediatley notice a submeged branch, so I began to retreive my spinner as fast as I could reel to avoid hanging up. You can probably guess what happened next, that's right a savage surface strike.   Not just once, but three times the fish slashed at the waking spinner. I never did hook up with that fish, but I vividly remember the violent slashes as this steelhead tried to remove the spinner from the food chain. Way cool!

[Streamer]

Well nothing spectacular about my story but it was memorable to me. After just getting my drivers license my parents allowed me to only fish within a half hour or so of my house. Reguardless of not having any freeway driving experience I really wanted to head south for summer runs but the parents said no. So my favorite river (Green) was calling my name. My dad said not to waste my time and to wait a few days and we would go fish the Cowlitz from our sled. He did wish me a lotta luck (because he said i would need it) lol. A good friend of mine (Adam) also decided he wanted to go too so off we went early that July morning. We thoroughly covered a good 1/4 mile or so stretch of prodctive water without as much as a nibble. Dissapointed, we walked back to the car and decided to hit 1 more spot on the way home. We started off throwing spinners and bait to no avail when I decided to put on a jig/bobber. First cast was too short so I reeled up and made a second toss placing it perfectly parallel the shelf on the other side of the hole. I quickly became distracted by something but when I looked back the float had disapeared. Right as I realized the float was nowhere to be seen the fish took off! It put up a pretty good fight as it settled back down into the hole headshaking back and forth. I was almost certain the fish was going to throw the hook but it stayed pinned. A few minutes later the 8lb steely was slid to the beach. No adipose fin in sight so I grabbed a rock and gave him the rock shampoo! Upon returning to the house my dad laughed when I told him I got one outa the green. He looked into the cooler and started to get angry with me thinking I went to the Cowliz. After insisting that I fished the Green he got a smile on his face and said, "Good job son!" After that trip my dad and I started to fish the Green again like we had before. Though not many fish were caught that trip it brought me more confidense and proof to my dad the Green still rocks.

[rvrfshr]

 Last fall on the  *********  while testing some spoons we observed a fish crammed into the furthest and swiftest nook possible of a favorite tailout. How it was holding without getting pulled back through the slot or over the lip is beyond me... I must have waggled the thing directly in it's lip zone twenty times with zero twitch on "his" part ! I walked up to the next section of micro-buckets and told my partner about it. We fished for about an hour before we passed back. This time he saw the fish as well, after of course I made about three passes with the copper #4 and still nothing. I asked him to check out the action of the same spoon I was fishing earlier as to get a second opinion. Upon first cast the fish tracked it all the way to our feet before turning back, same exact thing happened on the second and third presents. We were laughing so hard by the time the fish inhaled it on the fourth cast that landing it was not an option or even a thought ! This one will stick in my mind for a long time as the one that didn't but did get away !   

[kingofskunk]

i don't have a most memorable one, but my most emabarrassing summer-run day was with andrew and sturzman on the ********, they both got 3, i just lived up to my name

[Brian]

Hey guys, where the heck is the ********, anyway? .................just curious.

[kingofskunk]

just not giving away any rivers, sworn to secracy